The Evolution of Vizlly: A Message from Our CEO

It’s been 2.5 years since we first launched Vizlly – what we were calling our “multi-channel digital marketing system” for hotels. Vizlly was built on the premise that hotels could drive more direct bookings if they had a great hotel website – one specifically designed to convert visitors into hotel bookers. And instead of paying big bucks for an agency to build it for them, with a little help from us, they could do it themselves to keep costs down. Well folks – we were wrong. Or, I should say, we were partially right.

Yes, a beautiful hotel website that converts is certainly important, but it’s only part of the story. It’s the sleek body of a car, if you will, without the engine. To truly drive more direct bookings on your website, you also need traffic. You need an engine.

We were selling only part of the solution, assuming that hoteliers could manage the SEO and other digital marketing activities to drive traffic themselves. But what we’ve learned is that the majority of you can’t. You’re busy. You already have a full-time job running your hotel. Learning the complexities of SEO is time consuming, not to mention constantly evolving.

Over the last two years, we’ve consistently heard the same feedback from our customers – “I need help with SEO.” And the more we heard it, the more we realized there was a significant gap in the market (and in our Vizlly solution). Limited service and mid-scale hotels, in particular, are vastly underserved when it comes to SEO services. SEO is complex, time consuming and a never-ending effort. Most hotels simply don’t have the time, expertise or software tools to do it themselves. Unless you are a large property with a high-ADR, using an agency to do it is cost prohibitive, and

Well folks, we’ve heard you, and we’ve done something about it! I’m excited to announce that, as of today, Vizlly is evolving to include SEO Marketing Services. Customers that subscribe to our Vizlly DMS or DMS+ plans will now get their very own Vizlly Success Team, including a Digital Marketing Consultant, a Success Coach and a Senior SEO Analyst, who will tailor an SEO strategy unique to their hotel and execute on it. This will involve developing the right SEO strategy, creating a high-converting website based on that strategy, and providing ongoing activities to reinforce and build on that strategy – all designed to drive more bookings at a lower cost.

The rewards include improving your organic search rankings for specific search terms, and driving more qualified traffic to your website. Studies have shown that more qualified traffic converts at a higher rate. In other words, by driving the right kind of travel shoppers to your website, you’ll have a higher chance of converting them into direct bookings – bookings that are completely yours and 100% commission free!

We’ve invested a great deal of time into developing our SEO services, to make sure we get it right. We’ve consulted with some of the best in the SEO business, our Customer Success Team has undergone intensive training, and we’ve brought SEO experts on board to lead our teams.

I’m confident that we now offer something the market is truly asking for – a complete solution that can drive quality traffic, convert visitors at a higher rate, and ultimately drive more direct bookings at a lower cost. We have the car AND the engine.

Just as importantly, and at the risk of overusing my analogy, we’ve built our car and engine to provide the best balance of performance and fuel economy. There is no end to how much SEO one can actually do and, therefore, how much one can spend on it, but that spend comes with diminishing returns. So we’ve architected our services to drive the biggest SEO bang for our customers’ dollars.

The feedback we’ve been hearing from our customers, a number of whom have helped us refine our process by participating in trials over the last few months, has been incredible. They’re describing this as a game-changer. A no-brainer. And this makes me pumped!

I’m excited for this next evolution of Vizlly and will check back in with you in a few weeks with an update on how we’re making our customers successful. In the meantime, your car is waiting.

Take advantage of our special introductory pricing for Vizlly + SEO until June 30, 2017. Learn more by requesting a consultation.

Paolo Boni has been leading Leonardo since 2003 and is responsible for setting the company’s vision and strategic direction, as well as evangelizing Leonardo’s unique value proposition to the world. Under Paolo’s leadership, Leonardo has become the worldwide leader in online visual content management and syndication for the hotel and travel industry, with over 100,000 hotels and tens of thousands of travel-related websites and other travel distribution channels utilizing Leonardo’s online merchandising and travel media syndication services. Paolo is a frequent public speaker and panelist at major travel conferences on subjects relating to online travel marketing and rich media in travel. Paolo is a former Partner with Davies, Ward & Beck (now, Davies, Ward, Phillips & Vineberg LLP), a leading Canadian business law firm, practicing primarily in the areas of securities and corporate law with an emphasis on corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions. Paolo holds an LL.B. from Osgoode Hall Law School (1993) and a B.A. Economics from McGill University (1989).